Following my earlier Glofiish X500+ unboxing experience, here we go with a couple of detailed shots of E-TEN's latest Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone/Pocket PC Phone Edition.
This unique VGA Pocket PC Phone Edition features Windows Mobile 6 and the VGA screen definitely benefits from Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile version since the 2.8" screen looks crispy and makes it using it a pleasure. The housing is a kind of soft-touch finishing (similar to the Samsung SGH-i600/BlackJack or HTC Excalibur) which definitely feels nice and keeps the device safely in the hand as well as it keeps away finger prints.

The design is pretty reduced to the most important keys and includes for sure a D-Pad with action key as well. On the back, the device is sporting the 2 megapixel camera with photo light and mirror for self portraits as well as a loudspeaker:

On the left side, the device is sporting the volume keys and the Windows
Mobile typical record key as well as a 2.5 mm headset jack. On the right, we
have the camera button and the on/off switch:

The X500+ supports microSD memory cards and a standard mini USB jack:

So on the front, the X500+ features on the top left a GPS hotkey which
activates the GPS receiver and on the top right the M-Desk key which launches E-TENs
self-developed M-Desk application (something similar to the default Windows
XP/Vista desktop). Bellow the two keys, the device has two LEDs which are used
for W-LAN and GPS indication as well as for GSM reception and charging
indication:

On the bottom, the device features the talk/end key and the two soft-keys
only. It doesn't has a Start or Ok key as many other devices have today:

Anyway - all the front keys are illuminated which makes it easy to use in the
night:

Compared to the old
E-TEN M600, the X500+ became leaner and clearer. It's squarish and slightly
longer:

Unfortunately, I don't have the X500+'s real competitor here - the HTC
Artemis (which is HTC's Pocket PC Phone Edition with inbuilt GPS but QVGA screen
only). Nevertheless, for better imagination how small a QVGA device can be, here
are two photos of the X500+ compared to the HTC Prophet:

Mote to come soon - as always please feel free to ask your questions in the
meantime. I will do my best to answer them in a timely manner.

Anxiously awaiting your evaluation of the GPS capabilitiesand in particular the use of this device in bright sunlight.

Thanks

Posted by Mathew on 05.06.07 - 11:23:04

Could you please let me know other brand / models which has GPS+3G+Wifi features?

Posted by rebelpeter on 06.06.07 - 20:48:27

thanks for this first view on this lovely smartphone (glofiish x500+). i have already ordered it .. but i do have questions about the use of it during navigation. it will be offered with tomtom 6 GPS here and as i am riding a bike i am interested in using this phone pure as talking direction giving device: i will carry it in mij pocket but with a bluetooth earphone plugged in to receive spoken direction commands. how well will this smartphone work?

and another question: can i lock the touchscreen and all the buttons on the front while doing so, otherwise while driving buttons will be accidently pushed in in my pocket and that would be distractfull and maybe will force me to stop riding and readjust the smartphone which i really would not like to do. i would be pleased to hear from you how good the glofiish may work using it this way.

Posted by mimura on 11.06.07 - 11:00:39

Have you tried video playback with TCPMP player?

Posted by John007 on 16.06.07 - 16:53:05

Guys, This moron here is just another wanna be reviewer so he can get the "new stuff".

You will have better luck in getting a response on Modaco forum. There's already a thread there in regards to x500+. Ask your questions there

Mathew, head over to pdadb.net for a list of all the existing and upcoming PDA's

Posted by Arne Hess on 16.06.07 - 17:37:38

LOL... You better get the facts straight: I'm running this site/its forerunners since 1997 - so no wannabe but long time established. And your mentioned PDAdb.net got a lot of device photos from this site.

I hadn't seen the questions above because I was busy the past days with writing the review and previewing and making some photos of devices and have therefore simply overseen them. Before you get abusive, why not answering the questions above?

But anyway, you are free to read my complete review now at [selfurl=http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3927]the::unwired here[/selfurl].

@Mathew: This isn't a 3G device at all. The best one you can get, which has 3G, WiFi & GPS is either HTC's Advantage (too big) or HTC's HTC P3600 (no Windows Mobile 6 upgrade announced so far). Another option is the UMTS Fujitsu Siemens Loox [never tested it and no Windows Mobile 6 upgrade announced).

@rebelpeter: No question, you can lock the keys for sure. This is now a standard feature in Windows Mobile.

@mimura: I'm not a TCPMP player user so I cannot comment how well it is working since I stream all my content.